To think hygiene standards are low in Britain?

[castemary]

This obviously does not apply to everyone. But in Britain, I think there is a general acceptance of fairly low hygiene standards. I see it in several areas.
With individuals you have people telling everyone they do not wash bras for months, do not clean their teeth every day, do not wash face masks every day.
In public areas, offices and shops the cleaning often consist of no more than a quick hoover occasionally, a mop and a bit of damp wiping. Apart from toilets, places are rarely properly cleaned.
I think most people simply do not realise how unhygienic Britain is until they go to countries that do have a good standard of hygiene. There seems to be a lot of emphasis in Britain on superficial things that make places look good such as scatter cushions or make-up, and not on basic hygiene and cleanliness.
AIBU?

Yes a lot of women are very weird about going to the toilet and hover - never understood that. However, I'll admit that my family's toilet reading habit is fairly disgusting and leads to haemorrhoids, I've given up leaving books in there.

As long as someone doesn’t smell I don’t care how often they wash their bra etc. To add to this it’s not healthy to be obsessively clean and life to short to spend huge amount of time doing so. My partner is German and his obsession with cleanliness is border line neurotic. I just think he needs to relax a lot of time and don’t get me started on his parents they take cleanliness to another level and their house is sterile and not at all relaxing.

I wouldn’t say any other european countries are cleaner than the UK.

You have to remember that cleanliness is also cultural, I wouldn’t dream of using toilet paper, but ita completely normal for white brits to use toilet roll rather than soap and water.

I do however love Japan, but you have to remember that Japan is only clean because a high proportion of Japanese people respect their environment. A lot of the grot we see in the UK is caused by people who choose to lose a mess, if we all took care of our environment public facilities would be much much cleaner.

*too short

Did the op say where she is from and what countries bleach themselves to her satisfaction?

@UniBallEye

i worked in close proximity with someone who only washed her hair once a week at the very most and often less than that. She also did not believe in deodorant and did not wash her clothes enough. And believe me, you could tell all of that without needing to be told.

There were lots of days when she really smelled very strongly. Her nails were never particularly clean yet she had perfect make-up and manicured eyebrows daily.

She was married with 2 very young children too. I often used to wonder about the hygiene of the wider family. She always shirked communal cleaning up in the shared office kitchen.

We all shower daily here and have clean underwear and close contact clothing (vest / tshirts etc) every day. DD gets an entire clean uniform daily. Beds are changed weekly and towels / tea-towels after each use.
From the day she was born dd was bathed daily and had her hair washed and clean clothes and she has carried on in this vein, showering every evening before bed. Her skin is blemish free and always has been. She never once had nappy rash either.

I think it's a complete myth that washing children frequently gives them skin issues, in fact I think most children I have encountered could stand to being washed FAR more frequently than they are.

So many children reek of oily unwashed hair and have very grubby finger nails...

You’re wrong about thinking it’s a myth that washing children every day could case skin issues.

Not everyone is prone to eczema and if you’re not then you won’t suffer from it - but just because nome of you suffer from it. It doesn’t mean that excessive bathing doesn’t make it worse.

It can dry eczema prone skin out and break the skins natural barrier it’s not recommended to bath young children everyday. Children don’t sweat the same way adults, so they don’t smell. Obviously if they’re covered in muck you wash them, but they don’t need to have a bath everyday. 3?times a week is more than ample

The fact that children had to be taught to wash their hands after using the toilet when the pandemic first hit and the way some posters were proud to tell us they haven't washed their masks in months says you're right.

you can bleach all you like, not washing hands is filthy. Standards are disgusting!

In 2015 there was a study done in Europe asking who washes their hands after going to the toilet. The UK does fairly well though still would like it higher, but a lot of western countries are worse:
bigthink.com/strange-maps/revealed-dutch-are-least-hygienic-europeans

I've been to a decent amount of countries (mostly in Asia and Europe) and really apart from Japan I can't say any stood out as having higher hygiene standards both in personal terms and in general cleanliness. In fact, I've been to a few where the hygiene was to me worse though it might just be the places I went to. Though I think in hot countries they suffer more from poor hygiene as you start to get horrible smells coming from sewers and uncollected rubbish etc.

Also, I think some people on here have standards that are not warranted on the basis of hygiene but more just a belief. I shower or bathe every day but really there's plenty of evidence to show it can be bad for your hair and skin. Likewise, someone mentioned people not washing their jeans all the time but that's the advice from most places. Levi says after 10 washes. Other clothing experts say longer and that sometimes spot cleaning or soaking is better than machine washing.

Also, people are bringing up the mask cleanliness but what evidence do you have that people in other countries (especially those who didn't have a culture of wearing them before covid) are doing better?

Public toilets. Ewwwww. I remember using the public loos on a beach in Brighton and never again. I'd prefer to buy a £3 coffee at starbucks just to use their loos than use them again.

We've been around a fair bit, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark all have much better standards of hygiene in general, and in restaurants especially, bus/train stations. So has Japan. No shoes indoors, at all, ever.

Don't get me going on train toilets in the UK. Or litter on the streets for that matter.

dunno don't care OP
MNers are obsessed with cleanliness, imho

Oh masks are mandatory outdoors where I live, so I use a new disposable one every day.

And fuck the planet, eh? As long as you are squeaky clean.

Sorry OP but you are clearly talking rubbish (ha) most places I have travelled in the world are very unhygienic compared to here. Obviously some are cleaner but most are not.

As for the PP saying we tolerate flies on our food, are you kidding?? Whenever I've been on holiday abroad the food is swarming with flies and it's only the Brits that notice and don't eat it.

Go to toilet in Florida, cleaner is right behind you wiping down and cleaning, toilets don't smell and pretty pleasant. Get off plane and go to Glasgow Airport toilet, no cleaner in sight, hold your breath cos it stinks of urine, no toilet paper, dirty floors, cubicles, sink 🤮

Who are these healthy people not washing their hands, teeth etc and without basic hygiene? I don't know anybody in real life apart from a severely depressed family member whose basic hygiene is even remotely that bad!

@AMillionMilesAway

chaosrabbitland your post reminds me of when I was a kid and would share my ice cream with the family dog- lick for him, lick for me... I'm still alive!

Not only alive but no doubt healthier than a lot of the kids growing up being scrubbed several times a day and swamped in anti-bac spray and bleach.

I think that people here, are divided regarding their cleanliness issues. You have lots of people, who are paranoid about any germs,and buy up every cleaning product they see in the shops. They buy cleaning products for all different jobs. in stead of a couple of products for all jobs.

Some while ago,on here, a woman posted, that when her online food shop was delivered,it went straight into her garage for 10 days,and she sprayed it all immediately,and then took it all into the kitchen and washed all the tins and packets again, before putting it away.

There are also other people, who don't give a fig about germs, and don't get uptight about a bit of dirt and germs.

People who talk about baddie toilet brushes,and not washing a bra for a month are just over the top silly,and wasting their days,worrying about such things.

I've been told I'm over the top with hygiene for showering twice a day, washing hair daily and brushing teeth 2x a day, which seems completely normal to me. I'm.a sweaty Betty though and know some people who would get away with a shower every other day. They just don't seem to sweat.

I seem to endlessly clean at home with two young kids, but it always looks like a grubby dump. Would love to clean more, but I'm busy and it's futile.

I think public spaces like offices are not kept very clean. Cleaners only seem to clean loos and empty bins. I've never seem them hoover floors or wipe handles or desks. Air con never seems to work, so same air circulating. That's pretty poor. We take the piss out of other countries building standards, but we are very good at building small, damp and poorly ventilated spaces.

@Bananaman123

Go to toilet in Florida, cleaner is right behind you wiping down and cleaning, toilets don't smell and pretty pleasant. Get off plane and go to Glasgow Airport toilet, no cleaner in sight, hold your breath cos it stinks of urine, no toilet paper, dirty floors, cubicles, sink 🤮

But mind you don't step on the cockroaches in the shit hole that is Orlando International!

@vodkaredbullgirl

really never noticed.

Yeah, I really can't get worked up about other people's hygiene habits unless it's a health hazard. As for ranking cleanliness by country - how is that even measurable?

I think we’re pretty hygienic in the uk - I’m comparing with Greece where I saw a butcher rest his cigarette on the side of the wooden block while he chopped meat. Which country do you think is cleaner?

Have just fetched a floor wipe and gone over my laptop and phone. It definitely needed doing.

I have never been anywhere that had standards like the cleanliness of shared areas in German rented flats. There’s a competitive element to it, with people outdoing their neighbours or trying to.

The British (in general, although I accept it's a generalisation and many individuals will do otherwise) do not wash their hands enough, do not keep their kitchens and bathrooms scrupulously clean, do not change their bed sheets and towels enough, and some wear clothes more than once before washing them.

The horror 😱

Yeah, you're right OP, we are disgusting dirty skanks compared to the rest of the world. Surprised anyone wants to come here and be in this manky country.

I used to think they were high , but a thread on here with people saying they don't wash their hands Everytime they use the loo when at home changed my mind

YABU. You also should get some new friends if they're all not very hygienic. I don't know anyone who is as grim as you are describing.

@MeanderingGently

I have lived in Scandinavian countries in the past and they are so much cleaner than in Britain; Iceland and Norway especially so.

For a start, everyone takes their outdoor shoes off when going into a building, in Iceland it's any building at all, not just homes. Children wear little indoor slippers in school, no-one would come walking filthy outdoor shoes into anyone's home they were visiting.
If you go to Svalbard (OK, I accept that not many people do!) you even take you shoes off at door of many shops and always when entering the pub for an evening. No bringing outdoor germs, grit and dust into a building.

The British (in general, although I accept it's a generalisation and many individuals will do otherwise) do not wash their hands enough, do not keep their kitchens and bathrooms scrupulously clean, do not change their bed sheets and towels enough, and some wear clothes more than once before washing them.

And that's before I even get started on the lack of hygiene in some British shops, offices and even restaurant kitchens......!

On the issue of handwashing, there's not much difference between Scandinavians and the British. 75% of Brits wash their hands versus 78% of Swedes, when leaving the toilet. It's a much bigger issue in other European countries. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/european-countries-wash-their-hands-least-after-going-toilet-a6757711.html

It's pretty common where I live in the UK to take shoes off when entering homes. I really can't remember ever not doing it.